6. How complex are your surveys?

All software solutions provide a range of text-only questions and if every participant in your survey is going to be asked exactly the same set of questions, then your requirements are generally not considered complex. If, however, you need to present different questions for different groups of participants, then your requirements start to become more complex. Numerous terms are used for this – “logic branching,” “routing,” or “skip patterns” to name a few. But, essentially the script of the survey is adjusted to the individual participating in the survey, both in terms of his or her demographics, but also the responses given at various stages of the survey.

It is important to have the capability of logic branching, though these must never be so complex to use that you abandon them and ask everybody the same questions.

Paper surveys are rigid in their format, with all the navigational instructions appearing on the form. They are generally somewhat complex to include images and totally unable to include videos (unless you include a DVD with the questionnaire). Mobile and online surveys can accommodate all types of images, videos, and sound, though don’t assume that they’re easy features to set up – they can often be quite tricky.